Re: Financing of media.

[kl811af@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

On Tue, 26 Jul 1994, Herbert Gintis wrote:

> 	I still maintain that it is a mistake to prohibit private
> commercial stations, and the public in a democratic society not
> support a policy of this type. If people don't want to listen to
> commercial stations, the stations will not succeed.

I would content that Bavaria is (part of) a democratic society and the
Bavarian people actually choose to forbid private commercial stations.
(Some time ago there was a binding referendum on this question.) So, when
our right wingers wanted to introduce commercial radio they had to invent
a complicated legal construction which formally abides by this law.

When Bavarians voted against private commercial radio it wasn't for
antidemocratic sentiment but rather to the contrary. We in Germany have
had very good experience with a public (*not* state or government) system
of radio and TV, which gave access to all important groups of society and
covered the the most diverse tastes (channels with informational
programs, channels with popular music, channels with erudite music,
channels with programs directed to "cultural minorities" etc.).
Additionally the federal structure of this public system increased it's
diversity.

Andreas Goesele
Institut fuer Gesellschaftspolitik
Kaulbachstr. 31a
D-80539 Muenchen